Defining Australian Identity

             Australians since the early part of this century has been preoccupied with the idea of capturing and representing an Australian distinctiveness - the much-vaunted "Australian Identity". It is a familiar irony that one of the most urbanised countries in the world (since at least the late 19th century) should have sought this identity in constructed myths of the 'bush' - the famous 'Legend of the Nineties' popularised in the writing of Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and others and still exploited in recent movies such as Crocodile Dundee and TV shows such as The Bush Tucker Man.
             Another irony is that the playwright who came to be seen as the pioneer of Australian drama, Louis Esson was an inner city Melbourne bohemian who took his model from the Irish folk nationalism of WB Yeats and JM Synge. Under their influence he tried to discover in the Australian bush some equivalent of the Celtic myths and folk and peasant traditions that his Irish mentors were drawing on.
             Esson wrote as many colourful urban slum plays as he did bush plays (and also a sophisticated political comedy, his best-known play, The Time Is Not Yet Ripe). But Mother and Son [1923] is clearly an attempt to create a rural folk tragedy in which the values of simple country life, represented by Mrs Lind, Tom and Peggy and the dangerous seductions of the city represented by Emma are brought into conflict and played out in the fate of wild young Harry. This is not a definitive work about the people of Australia, but we have to start somewhere. If you are from overseas, then you might like to learn something about the people of Australia and what they are like.
             There are many misconceptions about Australians and what they are like. Many of the stereotypes even some Australians tend to subscribe to. The most common misconception is that Australians are tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, athletic types. True, some are like that, but not many.
             Another common misconceptio...

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